One more story …

I was thinking that I could probably tell a story about every player from, say, the mid-1980s through 2001.

And since the Rangers got the day off today (no practice), and don’t play again until Festivus, why not keep telling them?

Well, this one I thought of last week, when the Islanders’ Rick DiPietro gave up a goal off the faceoff, for which he was apparently asleep. DiPietro was looking down at his pads when an opponent fired one over his left shoulder right off a draw from the right dot. The goalie never moved.

DiPietro took no responsibility, hemming and hawing about how he always has time to get set, and that’s what he was doing — as if the linesman dropped the puck too early or something. Very weak stuff (not to mention the jackwagon Mohawk haircut he was wearing).

Anyway, it reminded me of another goalie in another game at Nassau Coliseum.

Mike Richter was looking down during a faceoff, his skates moving back and forth, as a puck was launched past him. Like DiPietro, he obviously was not ready or set for the puck to be dropped and never saw the shot, never reacted to it.

After the game, Richter was more forthcoming that DiPietro, though. That’s the way Richter was. Always took full responsibility for every goal, always believed in accountability. That’s what makes him the credible, admirable person he is.

Anyway, asked what happened on the goal, Richter said he was dancing.

Dancing? Dancing to what?

“I think it was the Chicken Dance,” Richter said.

Everybody laughed, most thinking he was joking.

Sure enough, I went back and watched a tape of the game. Just before the puck was dropped, the P.A. system was playing the Chicken Dance. Richter was actually shuffling his feet to the Chicken Dance. And he admitted it.

The chicken dance, really? I’m sure he knows what the Isles fan chant during the slight break between verses in that song. And they also have their bastardized version of “If You’re Happy And You Know It”.

I really wonder if they’re going to have DiPi retire if he can’t get consistently healthy. And maybe still find a way to keep his cap hit on the books so they can count it toward their cap floor like they do with Yashin’s deal. If that’s the case the league should step in and charge them not with cap circumvention but cap inflation and take away their top draft pick that it looks like they’re fully trying to tank to obtain this year.